Maybe you’re not in an industry that’s typically associated with experiences. Maybe you’re afraid that by using experiences as a basis for competition you’ll become a caricature, or maybe you’re afraid that you’ll look foolish, or you’re afraid that you don’t know how to do it, or that it won’t work.

That might be because you’re thinking outside the box, and that’s a mistake. If you get outside the box, you’re customers won’t know where to find you, or how to place you, or what to compare you with.

In the words of Seth Godin, “It’s dark and cold outside the box.”

But what if you go to the edge of the box? Not something crazy, not something “out there”, but rather just inside?

You and your competitors want to stay in the middle, where it’s comfortable, where it’s familiar, and so when you go to the edges you’ll find that there isn’t as much competition because the competition wants to stay in the middle too.

When you’re at the edge, but still just inside the box, you’re in a one horse race. You don’t have to convince your customers to pick you anymore. All you need to do is convince them that the world has changed, that there are new rules. That’s easy to do because the world has changed. You don’t have to do much convincing because your customers will look around their own lives and see that’s true.

And when they look around, they’ll also see that you’re the only one playing the new game.

And just like that, by going to the edges, you’ve escaped competition.